The Standard

6th July 2014

In 2009 the then Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture David Coltart introduced incentives for educators as a way to quell growing discontent over the paltry salaries that teachers were getting and to motivate the education workforce.

The monetary incentives came in the wake of countrywide job action that almost crippled the education sector. Most schools were operating with skeleton staff and many pupils failed because they could not finish their syllabi on time.

Although parents were initially against the idea and expressed disgruntlement, they warmed up to the idea as student performance started picking up and most schools recorded a marked improvement in public examinations.

Parents then found sense and agreed to pay teacher incentives through their schools development associations — nothing to do with the government.

But recently the minister of Primary and Secondary Education Lazarus Dokora scrapped the incentives saying they were no longer serving their purpose. This stance has been met with a lot of resistance from the educators and parents who feel that the incentives should stay until salaries are improved.

The president of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) Richard Gundane said the scrapping of incentives would demoralise educators whose current remuneration was still inadequate.

“The teachers need to be compensated for the sterling job that they are doing. It is demoralising [to withdraw incentives],”
Gundane also pointed out that there would be a lot of problems as a result of the scrapping of the incentives.

“This will strain relations and educators and the minister/government will always view each other with suspicion and there will not be any trust,” he said.

Gundane said it was already evident that there was animosity between the two and yet for the sake of progress they were supposed to work together. Incentives were helping get teachers to stop the “unorthodox means by which educators sought to supplement their salaries, activities which did not benefit the pupil”.

He however said there were some positives to the development which has been widely debated on many social platforms.

“From the labour perspective, uniformity of services is most ideal and those in the rural areas will not feel like they have been disadvantaged,” Gundane said.

He added that the scrapping of incentives had created an opportunity for the educators to unite for a common purpose of negotiating for better working conditions which included improved remuneration and allowances.

Dokora has received a lot of disapproval from parents and the public for implementing too many changes without consultation with stakeholders.

Besides scrapping the incentives, the minister also banned holiday and extra lessons saying these would disrupt the smooth running of schools and create unfair conditions.

His policy cha-nges, described as too harsh, have been made with little consultation from other stakeholders. Dokora’s new policies have been in stark contrast with the previous policies that have produced excellent results.

Raymond Majongwe of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has also decried the many changes that Dokora has brought.

“The Ministry of Education under Minister Dokora has made sweeping changes to the education sector. We are not happy at the swift way changes are coming; speed and direction are not the same thing,” he said.

Economist Chris Magaya said the scrapping of incentives would increase corrupt activities as the payments would now be done clandestinely.

“This will just open a can of worms whereby the payments and extra lessons will be done in secrecy,” he said.

Magaya said the sprouting of dubious private colleges would also become more prevalent and educators would be forced to take up extra lessons there, to beef up their salaries.

However, Dokora has defended his actions saying incentives had served their purpose and were no longer necessary.

During a recent question-and-answer session, the minister said the paying of incentives had sowed seeds of discord among teachers, especially the rural-based ones who never received incentives.

SW Radio Africa

24th June 2014

Around 300,000 children are dropping out of school each year, the ZANU PF Minister for Youth Francis Nhema revealed on Saturday.

Addressing delegates and children at an event to mark the Day of the African Child, the Minister said the figures were “ghastly”.

Nhema said while some children were dropping out after failing their O Levels, many are being forced to leave school due to economic hardships.

“The reality we face at the end of each academic year is that not all of our children and young people will pass their Ordinary Level examination.

“The total of those failing examinations, added to those dropping out due to these (socio-economic) circumstances, is in the range of between 250,000 to 300,000.

“This number, over a five year period, translates to between a million to a million-and-a-half. It is too ghastly to contemplate,” Nhema said on Saturday.

Progressive Teachers’ Union President Dr Takavafira Zhou said the statistics cited by Nhema were not new, adding that they simply reflect the poverty and misery currently afflicting millions of Zimbabweans.

“A research survey we conducted during the time of ex-Education Minister David Coltart revealed that at least 197,000 primary school pupils drop out every year,” Zhou said.

Zhou said the government was failing in its duty by not resolving the problems facing education and other sectors when all evidence points to a mounting crisis.

“The issue of generations of uneducated youths is also a social, economic and political problem which requires a multi-pronged approach from the State, including adequate funding.”

Zhou said suggestions that Zimbabwe has a 92% literacy rate, one of the highest in the continent, are misleading and based on figures gleaned from the 1980s-1990s.

“The 92% literacy rate which we keep basking in is just the ability to read and write and not the functional literacy we should be aiming for.

“The current situation, stretching from 1999, is that students have not learnt much because the government is not funding the education sector and failing to provide universal access to primary education, leading to drop-outs.”
The deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe’s schools, including poor wages for teachers, have forced many qualified staff out of the country adding to the challenges facing the sector.

While ex-Education Minister Coltart had introduced a raft of programmes and incentives aimed at reviving the sector and retaining staff, his successor has reversed most of these, leading to a loss of morale among the teachers.

Coltart is widely credited with stabilising the education sector through sound policies and robust efforts at mobilising funds and material resources from donors.

Zhou accused current Education Minister Lazarus Dokora of being out of touch and failing to consult stakeholders when coming up with education policies.

“He is the person who has suggested that pupils must write exams at Grade 2, and at Grade 4. He has banned mid-week sports and has contemplated not paying teachers during holiday periods.

“Instead of moving full speed in the wrong direction, Dokora should pause, listen and consult widely because if teachers do not buy into his policies, even if he deploys aeroplanes to monitor them, none of his ill-advised policies will be implemented,” Zhou said.

Daily News

23rd June 2014

Education stakeholders say the raft of changes being introduced in the sector by Lazarus Dokora, minister of Primary and Secondary Education will cause disharmony and anxiety among teachers.

Since taking over last year, Dokora has announced several changes to the education sector including banning teachers from complementing their low wages through offering holiday lessons.

Dokora has also withdrawn incentives for teachers that were introduced by his predecessor David Coltart in order to retain teaching staff.

Other changes that are reportedly being mooted by Dokora include scrapping of teachers’ salaries for three months they will be on holiday — April, August and December.
It has also been reported that Dokora wants cameras installed in classrooms in order to monitor teachers.

The Education minister also wants sporting activities banned during the week.

Stakeholders who spoke to the Daily News dismissed Dokora as an overzealous minister who wants to steal the limelight at the expense of everybody else including the learners.

Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said Dokora is moving too fast.

“The problem with the minister is that he is going too fast but if he thinks he can become a hero by overturning all that we have achieved in the country in the last three decades then it is a tragedy,” Majongwe said.

Some of Dokora’s changes have also drawn the ire of parents, particularly the banning of extra lessons.

Professor Fred Zindi, an education psychologist with the University of Zimbabwe’s faculty of education said while the decision to ban extra lessons was necessary to discourage laziness among educators, it would not be proper to scrap incentives when teachers’ conditions of work have not improved.

“When Coltart encouraged incentives it was out of realisation that the teachers were not properly remunerated, so alternatively, the government should look at ways of improving their lot first,” said Zindi.

Zindi said it was unwise for government to scrap holiday salaries for teachers as they would still need to pay rent and other necessities.

He suggested that if government felt that teachers were being paid for nothing during holidays they should do away with holidays and let the children learn all year round.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said incentives create inequality among teachers when they are supposed to be a homogeneous group in terms of income.

“We have since said that the issue of incentives is unsustainable because it divides the teachers and that leads to disharmony in the profession,” Ndlovu said.

Jemius Muguwe, the deputy director for infancy education and learners’ welfare in the ministry of Primary and Secondary Education admitted that there were divergent views between stakeholders and government over how to transform the education sector.

Speaking at a meeting of the ministry of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education and members of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry (CZI) in Harare last week, Muguwe, said the aspirations of most parents of school going children was at variance with those of his ministry.

Muguwe said while for example, government was of the opinion that children should not be sent out of school for non-payment of fees since it infringes on their right to education, parents often chose to fight government in courts when they are followed up by debt collectors.

He said children needed to be taught practical work so that by the time they leave school they will be employable.

Muguwe added, “Even when we try to teach children through say practical subjects, some choose to interpret it as child labour at schools and that does not help anyone.”

Newsday

23 June 2014

SCHOOLS across the country have traditionally used entrance tests that were conducted at a fee to select prospective Form One pupils for the following year.

In recent years, however, controversy has shrouded the otherwise noble exercise with some schools accused of deliberately using the tests to rake in phenomenal profits.

It was against this backdrop that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education recently intervened and banned entrance tests and ordered schools to use Grade Seven examination results for their selection processes.

Schools around the country were charging between $20 and $200 for pupils to go through the selection processes.

Some parents who spoke to NewsDay said they welcomed government intervention as they were being forced to dig deep into their pockets to pay for entrance examinations at several schools where their children had to fight it out with thousands others for a few places.

Edgar Chiwashira said he later discovered that the exercise was designed in such a way that thousands of parents would pay for their children to write the tests when there were just a few places for the pupils.

“Imagine a situation where 2 000 pupils are invited to write an entrance test for $50 when the school only has 100 places for Form One, for example. It’s plain robbery. It means the school is going to make $100 000,” he said.

He added that the government intervention was long overdue and he was happy that action had finally been taken.

Many parents were forced to pay more as their children had to write the entrance tests at several schools to increase their chances of securing Form One places.

Some schools invited as many as 2 500 pupils for interviews when they could accommodate only a 10th of that number in their facilities.

Another parent, Janet Mwatsikesimbe, said her daughter — who is now doing Form One — had to attend entrance interviews at six schools and she was only accepted at one.

“I had paid $240 in total for all the entrance tests, and she was rejected at five of those schools which I thought was unfair.

When we went for the entrance test, I was shocked by the huge numbers of candidates who also wanted Form One places,” she said.

She said although entrance tests were good in that they afforded schools an opportunity to prepare before they took in new Form One pupils, their greed has been their bane and she welcomed the government’s decision.

Instead of using the exercise to properly screen competent students, school heads were ripping off struggling parents, she said.
Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe described entrance tests as a fundraising platform given the way in which schools were now interviewing more people than they could offer places.

“It is purely unfortunate that processes have taken this particular route. It’s unfortunate that schools have now taken to acting in this manner,” Majongwe said.

“You can have 50 places and yet 300 children will sit for the entrance exam. This money ultimately is never accounted for and it’s unfair on the parents.”

The issue of entrance test had become like another chapter in the long–running tale of income raising schemes including holiday and extra lessons as well as incentives paid to teachers to do their job.

Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association president Richard Gundani welcomed the position taken by government to scrap off entrance tests.

“It is a positive development as it brings order in the Form One recruitment exercise. Most schools were setting their own standards which increased the cost of education. As a result, some pupils were failing to access quality education,” he said.

Government recently banned all holiday lessons — except for examination classes — as well as teachers’ incentives.

Former Education minister David Coltart last year said schools should desist from fleecing parents by charging exorbitant entrance test fees for prospective pupils.

“We are not against entrance fees per se, but schools must never use this as a fundraising activity. If a school has entrance tests it can’t have thousands of people sitting for 60 places.

That will be unfair to parents,” Coltart said.

“The charge must be reasonable and it must be in line with the actual costs of running those entrance tests.”

He said schools could not unilaterally increase entrance fees without the consent of parents.

Grade Seven results sufficient?
Traditionally, many secondary schools ignored the Grade Seven results during their intakes as they were based on the results of the entrance tests that would have been written the previous year.

In May this year, acting secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Rogers Sisimayi said the ministry’s policy position was that secondary schools should use Grade Seven results as the basis of their Form One enrollments.

“What is the purpose of Grade Seven examinations if they are not used for Form One entrance? We communicated with schools through the normal channels and that is in our written circulars,” he said, adding that schools were fleecing parents of their hard-earned cash by turning entrance tests into a business.

He added that children from low-income families could not afford the high entrance test fees charged for entrance exams.

The ban came a few weeks before most secondary schools were set
to conduct the tests in which various amounts of non-refundable fees are demanded from prospective pupils.

Sisimayi warned the schools that defying the directive would attract consequences and defiant schools would be dealt with accordingly.

The entrance tests, besides sounding like a parallel education process, were also contributing to the cost of education in the process further burdening the already suffering parents.

Early this month, Association of Trust Schools (ATS) chairperson Abe Gatsi said most schools were preparing for entrance tests — with most of them scheduled for July 5 — but no fees would be charged to students.

“What we want is to get the cream of the nation. We don’t want to recruit Form Ones basing on Grade Seven results which are released late. It is also possible that children can panic during the exam and not attain marks they would have always been attaining throughout the year, so we want to test these children while they are calm, to get the best out of them,” Gatsi said.

“If Zimsec assures us results would be out on time then we might in future consider enrolling for Form One based on that, but until they give us that assurance, we are going to hold our entrance tests free of charge to willing candidates.”

Entrance test, acceptance fees — two sides of the same coin?

Some elite schools under the ATS umbrella have, however, been accused of charging a non-refundable acceptance fee of
$2 700 for students to be enrolled for Form One next year.

The elite league of schools that include Chisipite Senior, Christian Brothers’ College, Eaglesvale High, Girls College, Hillcrest College, Peterhouse Boys, Peterhouse Girls, St George’s College, The Heritage, St John’s College, Watershed College, Westridge High, Falcon College and Gateway High School will be holding entrance examinations on July 5.

Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora has accused ATS for making life difficult for parents and said their demands were not only unacceptable, but illegal.

Since dollarisation in February 2009 there have been calls on government to provide fees guidelines for private schools.

Most government schools in high density and rural areas pay at least $5 as fees per term while those in low-density areas are paying $30 per term and a minimum of $20 for secondary schools.

Fees for schools under the ATS umbrella range from $2 700 to $3 500 for day scholars and boarders respectively in secondary school.

The Standard

22nd June 2014

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe inadvertently popularised “weevils” in Zimbabwe after he launched a blistering attack on people he accused of seeking to destroy Zanu PF from within two weeks ago.

Suddenly weevils, devil incarnates and other derogatory words gained currency on social media, pubs and kombis. Whoever was suspected of working at cross purposes with others was considered a weevil or a devil incarnate, another term used by Mugabe to blast Information minister Jonathan Moyo for allegedly using the public media to fuel divisions in the party.

The Minister of Presidential Affairs, Didymus Mutasa added to the intrigue by suggesting that “gamatox” be used to exterminate the troublesome insects from Zanu PF.

Away from the convoluted world of Zanu PF politics, some teachers who hardly get a platform like Mugabe to broadcast their opinions, also quietly coined their own word Dofo-ra [ignoramus] to refer to the Minister of Education Lazarus Dokora whom they accused of destroying Zimbabwe’s education “weevil style”.

With his unmistakable goatee, the Minister of Education has become a poster boy of ridicule among teachers, angry with the way he is trying to “reinvent the wheel” in the education sector.

It seems, Dokora is ruffling feathers with teachers and headmasters from Zambezi to Limpopo with reforms that only he himself seems to understand and believe can help transform Zimbabwe’s education system for the better.

Unlike his predecessors, Dokora has banned vacation school; he does not want to see parents encouraging teachers to put in extra effort through paying attractive incentives to them. He prefers that schools use the legal process to recover fees from defaulting parents, rather than sending children away.

I don’t believe the rumour doing the rounds that Dokora doesn’t want teachers to be paid when they are on holiday or that sports be banned from the curriculum. That would be the height of absurdity and I am certain the honourable minister would also reject such ideas.

Whatever Dokora’s motives, they are clearly harmful to the education sector if one listens to the concerns coming from schools.

Traditionally, teachers tend to hold ministers of education in high regard: remember the remarkable Fay Chung, Dzingai Mutumbuka and David Coltart who mobilised the donor community to supply millions of textbook to our impoverished schools.

But in less than a year in charge, Dokora already ranks as the worst minister of education since independence. Instead of focusing on their classroom duties, angry teachers are busy drafting papers exposing the flaws in the minister’s policies and are using every opportunity to denounce him. Last week headmasters sounded an alarm when they attended the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) conference held in Victoria Falls under the theme “Education: an Invaluable Investment”.

“We have resolved to seek audience with President Robert Mugabe because we don’t know what our minister is thinking, we have made every effort to meet him but each time he has ignored us and the issues we are trying to highlight to him,” said a teachers’ representative.

The headmasters’ lack of confidence in their minister clearly shows there is a leadership crisis in the ministry of education.

We all know Zimbabwe’s education system is broken down, but the last thing we expect to see is a minister who will further break it into pieces. The state of affairs in the ministry calls for Mugabe to act on the matter. The President cannot be seen to be only denouncing weevils that are destroying Zanu PF, without equally doing the same to ministers like Dokora who have caused widespread rancour in schools.

For how long can Mugabe allow Dokora to implement his ill-advised and half-baked policies? Do we need a minister who believes only himself has the right answers to the problems confronting our education system, ignoring the advice given by professionals who have dedicated their lives to teaching our children for little gain?

There is no denying Dokora is like a square peg that can’t fit in a round hole. It’s either he starts consulting teachers or he should abandon his ill thought out reforms which will only serve to destroy the gains made in the education sector. We wait for a cabinet reshuffle with bated breath.

Newsday

20th June 2014

SPORT, Arts and Culture minister Andrew Langa yesterday dissolved the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) board, leaving Charles Nhemachena’s job as director-general (DG), of the supreme sports body hanging by a thread.
Langa was addressing a football indaba at the Zifa Village in Mt Hampden outside Harare, aimed at resuscitating the nation’s number one sport, but was not impressed that only one board member — Jessie Nyakatawa — turned up for the crucial meeting.

The out-going board, appointed by former Education Minister David Coltart on February 6 2013, was chaired by Bulawayo lawyer Joseph James. Other members are Edward Siwela, who had been retained from the previous board, Obadiah Moyo and former Zimbabwe Cricket boss Dave Ellman-Brown.

Former Hockey Association of Zimbabwe president Aaron Kanyangarara and ex-national team captain Aaron Kanyangarara, former Zimbabwe Ladies’ Golf Union president Nyakatawa, Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president Aisha Tsimba and former teacher Miriam Mushayi were also on the board.

But after only Nyakatawa attended yesterday’s meeting in Mt Hampden, Langa diverted from his prepared speech and told the board he will dissolve them.

“I can only see one board member here and it shows how we do things. I will dissolve them,” he said.

“When the parent association is not here, I can only say I am disappointed. There was never anything more important than this. You can’t fail me and we will ensure that you are gone. Tell James (Joseph), in Bulawayo that sport is dying and we have always said improve, improve and improve.

“There are a lot of DGs in this country and we are definitely going to restructure the SRC. DG and your staff, I will restructure and I am going to do that before I am moved.

“The objective of the new board would be to reconfigure the aim and visions and fit them into the National Sports Policy and I am sure that will change the way sport is run in the country. We need a new strategy for football and all other sports and we will be meeting all the other associations like cricket, rugby and volleyball in due course,” Langa said.

Reverting back to his speech, Langa said: “My ministry’s concern is in the lack of effective management of the national associations by the SRC. The mandate of the SRC is to develop sport and oversee the corporate governance of the national associations that need to be strengthened.

“This will be done through restructuring of the commission with a view to revitalise it. The SRC has to be hands on as the implementing arm of government policy. Its operations will be in line with my ministry’s strategic focus to industrialise the sports sector. It will be the objective of a new board to reconfigure the SRC to be in touch with the grassroots,” Langa said.

After presentations by the various speakers, a plenary session was then conducted which came up with resolutions that will be drafted into the national sports policy.

The Herald

By Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor

TWO years after they convened a similar meeting government, the Sport and Recreation Commission and Zifa will come together for another indaba aimed at finding solutions to the problems haunting football today.The meeting being facilitated by the Sports Commission is scheduled for the Zifa Village and comes two years after former Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart arranged a similar initiative at Pandhari Lodge whose resolutions never really bore any fruit.

Sports Commission corporate communications officer Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said they were expecting Zifa to present a report on the state of football in the country with stakeholders then expected to offer possible solutions that could help drive the country’s biggest sport from its problems.

“The Sports and Recreation Commission in conjunction with ZIFA and the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture will be hosting a football indaba on 19 June 2014 at the ZIFA Village from 0830 – 1300 Hrs. The purpose of the Indaba will be to receive and consider a report on the state of football in the country, appreciate the challenges that our football is facing and to proffer solutions as stakeholders,’’ wrote Nheweyembwa in his notice.

Nheweyembwa said they had lined up Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa, his Primary and Secondary Education counterpart Lazarus Dokora, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Temba Mliswa among the key speakers.

There are however genuine concerns that the indaba may have been hastily convened and might not cater for a wider spectrum of stakeholders.

The indaba also comes just weeks after the country’s flagship soccer team, the Warriors sunk to new depths when Ian Gorowa’s men were bundled out of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers at the preliminary round stage following a 3-2 aggregate defeat by Tanzania.

There was no immediate respite for the local game as a week later the Mighty Warriors were also knocked out of the 2014 African Women’s Championships following back to back 1-0 defeats by Zambia in the final qualifier.

Those results sparked a public outcry as they put into perspective the problems haunting the national game and prompted Langa to convene a stakeholders indaba to try and thrash out those challenges.

But as some of the game’s stakeholders converge at the Zifa Village in Mt Hampden this morning, there is need for the participants to ensure the meeting does not fizzle into a mere talk shop as was the case when Coltart presided over the Pandhari indaba.

It is also clear that as parliamentarians, government officials, the Sports Commission, representatives of the corporate world and Zifa troop for the indaba, the biggest problem haunting the national game is that of funding.
That Zifa have had to rely on their president Cuthbert Due to fund the association’s activities is a serious indictment on a country that is eager to stake a claim among the giants of the continental game and become a regular feature at such competitions like the African Cup of Nations.

Dube who has over the years funded the Warriors campaigns and paid the salaries of Zifa staff including successive national coaches, has often argued that it is not sustainable for one man to continue bailing out the national game.

Thus the issue of funding is set to be topical in the discussions and government is expected to lead the way in coming up with workable solutions that would also ensure Zifa do not sink further into a debt trap that has already stalled development of the game.

Nheweyembwa last month also spoke of the need for a major funding policy for sport in the country to be put into place with the Sports Commission spokesman revealing that they had detected a number of similarities on the problems being faced by national associations including Zifa, Zimbabwe Cricket, Zimbabwe Rugby Union and the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe.

While the boarder picture would be to establish a national policy for the funding of sport, today’s indaba is about football and Langa and the rest of the participants will get to know the state of the game from a Zifa perspective when Dube presents his report.

Mliswa’s committee has since its inception also taken a keen interest in the goings-on at the sporting associations but the firebrand former Warriors fitness trainer has acknowledged that football has also been pegged back by inadequate resources.

Fifa with whom Zifa have been enjoying goodwill in the last four years, have also hinted that they could partly assist Zifa to wipe off their $4 million debt but only if government or the association start the ball rolling and show greater commitment towards that cause.

The indaba would also have to avoid focusing only on the Warriors and their failed Nations Cup campaign without addressing some of the major factors that have contributed to the decline of the senior national team which include lack of a vibrant junior policy on the part of Zifa who have not assembled an Under-23 team for four years.

Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela, however said they were looking forward to the indaba with optimism.

“Basically it if for stakeholders to appreciate the challenges in our football but I think this meeting has come at the right time and in the right direction because as it stands football needs the input of everyone ,’’ Gwesela said.

Apart from seeking the sympathy of stakeholders, Zifa would have to acknowledge their administrative shortcomings some of them so glaring that they do not inspire investor confidence in the game.

It is no secret that any corporate entity would want transparency and proper corporate governance f they are to inject financial and material resources into the game and Zifa would have to prove they can measure up to that task if provided with the resources.

Newsday

18th June 2014

PROGRESSIVE Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe has accused government of “lying” to the international community that it had incorporated civic education and counselling into the education curriculum in order to appear democratic and access international funding.

Addressing guests at a public meeting running under the theme Whither Our Education System? held in Harare last Thursday, Majongwe said in 2008 government officials told guests at the 48th session of the International Conference on Education in Switzerland that the new subjects had been incorporated into the education curriculum to promote democracy.

“The Zimbabwe government report which was presented during the 48th session of the International Conference on Education in Geneva was nothing, but a lie,” Majongwe said.

“Some of the false information they told the international community in their report was that they had introduced two new subjects at schools, civic education and guidance and counselling.”

Majongwe claimed the whole point in misleading the international community was to give the impression that the country was taking a democratic route in order to receive foreign funding.

“Other claims by the government in that report were that they were going to broaden the curriculum in order to strengthen the teaching of science and maths subjects, as well as construct science laboratories – which they said was already taking place. They also claimed they were going to have holiday camps for girls to be taught maths and sciences during holidays so that they bridged the gender disparity in sciences,” he said.

He said all these were not being implemented, but instead policies to further frustrate teachers were being pronounced.

Contacted for comment over the weekend, Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora professed ignorance over the matter.

“On the issue of introduction of civic education, I do not think it was the Primary and Secondary ministry then which presented that report,” he said.

However, his predecessor David Coltart said although the report was presented when he was not yet in government, he had personally pushed for the subjects to be introduced, but his efforts were shot down by fellow Cabinet ministers in the inclusive government.

“Introduction of civic education was part of my plans for curriculum reform, but the process was political and what I was trying to do ended before we had started the reforms because Zanu PF was worried about civic education and the teaching of human rights. If one reads the Education Act, you will also find that the minister is not given any power to reform the curriculum. That power is given to the permanent secretary,” Coltart said.

Daily News

13th June 2014

Civil servants should brace themselves for challenging times ahead as government continues to shift pay dates, piling more misery on the already hard-pressed government workers.

Civil servants, who include nurses and ex-government workers, will be paid late over the next six months and will only receive their December salaries way after Christmas this year, according to a pay schedule that the Civil Service Commission released on Wednesday.

President Robert Mugabe’s government has been shifting the pay dates for its workers as sources of revenue dwindle in the face of a deepening economic crisis.

Representatives of workers and other stakeholders told the Daily News yesterday that government’s continued dithering on pay dates is not only illegal but also a dangerous precedent in a country hit by unprecedented company closures and sky rocketing unemployment rates.

David Coltart, the former Education minister, warned that delays in paying salaries could have a knock-on effect on morale in the already restive sector.

“This shifting of pay dates raises the question, will government be able to pay salaries at all?” Coltart asked.

“There are huge concerns whether government will be able to pay bonuses this year. The shifting of dates are just announcements. We know from what minister Patrick Chinamasa (Finance) and also Zimra have said about the strain salaries are putting on revenue collection, the ability to pay is put under strain and they have changed the dates to give themselves breathing space.”

The country, still recovering from a decade-long economic recession, currently relies on tax collections to fund its national budget, with the public service wage bill gobbling 73 percent of all government exdpenditure, leaving just 11 percent for capital investment and 16 percent for non-wage recurrent expenditure.

In April, Zimra warned of a “serious shrinkage of revenue” that could see government miss its tax income targets.

Efforts to get comment from Chinamasa were fruitless yesterday.

Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) said its membership of about 12 000 was the worst affected by the delays in payment, which apparently favour soldiers.

“This is only affecting nurses; they should alternate between all civil servants and not only one sector,” Chipfurutse Mugove, Zina’s organising secretary said.

“The good thing though is that we still hope that the salaries will come but we must all be treated equally.”

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the country’s largest worker representative body, said the continued shifting of pay dates inconveniences workers.

“We are very clear on pay dates, there is an agreed pay date and government is not honouring that,” said Gideon Shoko, deputy secretary general of ZCTU.

“It should be noted that everyone wants to plan and under these circumstances it is very difficult to do so. To make matters worse, government is effecting the changes alone. It is now clear that the promises that the government made were all false. They promised poverty datum line-aligned salaries but they are not keeping the promises. These changes are wrong and devilish and should be condemned.”

In the run-up to last year general elections, Mugabe promised to adjust civil servants salaries to be in sync with the PDL but the cash strapped government only effected a marginal rise that fall far short of its workers expectations.

In April, government raised salaries of civil servants by $54, with the lowest paid worker now earning $375 a month. The PDL is pegged at $511.

The opposition National Constitution Assembly (NCA) yesterday described the government’s move as illegal.

“NCA party is concerned with the continuous violation of workers’ rights by Zanu PF government,” said Madock Chivasa, spokesperson of the NCA. “It seems as if there is no longer a fixed date or day for civil servants to get their salaries from government.

“The delays and change of pay days every month is a clear violation of workers’ rights and against the Labour Act that compels employers to pay salaries on time. As a result of yesterday’s (Wednesday) pronouncement by the Civil Service Commission, NCA party is now taking Zanu-PF government to court to ensure that workers’ rights are protected and respected. The NCA will seek to get a court order compelling the Civil Service Commission to fix a single day to pay civil servants their salaries every month. The sought court order can then be used for legal action once government fail to pay civil servants on the set day.”